Ar'Kendrithyst

When everyone was healed, they stood over the unicorn corpse.

The unicorn was ten meters tall and ten meters long. It was an expanse of burned flesh, black fur, and tangled intestines. Its crown of horns glittered in the afternoon light. Whole and undamaged, it might have been a majestic creature if not for the tentacled maw and the horror it inflicted upon all those it met. Like this…

Like this, it was a sign of improvement. The monster was dead. Jane and her teammates had survived the encounter. With a bit of healing afterward, everyone was whole, too.

But there was something wrong with this unicorn.

Jane said, “It’s much too big. This is one of the ones we should have run from. There’s dragon essence in there.”

Bett said, “Maybe. I’d still like the body. I can deal with a little dragon essence.”

“Are you sure?” Jane looked around the group. “How do you two want to do this?”

Marric said, “I just got my Class.” He smiled wide, saying, “I’m good to hunt more unicorns, but I’ll need a few hours to get back to my post and pick up some Ability Quests from a registrar I trust.” He looked to the unicorn. “You two fight over it. I don’t have a stake in this race.”

Scallion frowned. He said, “I don’t like mucking around with dragon essence, Bett.”

“It’s really not a big deal.” Bett said, “I can handle it. All I have are slime forms.”

Jane asked, “Correct me if I’m wrong, but taking in any dragon essence at all opens you up as a target to the hidden dragons of the world.”

Marric said, “Simplistic, but true enough.”

“Exactly, Bett,” Scallion said, looking at Bett with eyes that said a lot more than his mouth.

“That is overly simplistic. It’s fine.” Bett looked to Scallion, saying, “It’s fine.”

“I’m unwilling to take this risk.” Jane said, “I think we should just sell it, that way no one risks the dragons.”

“This monster is a catch.” Bett stared at Jane with with her big purple eyes, saying, “If you’re not willing, then let me stand up and take that risk. I’m almost at [Lightwalk]. I’m sure this would put me over the top.”

Scallion looked away.

Jane relented, “Okay, fine. If you want to risk this… I relinquish any claim. I can take the next one. Hopefully it will be smaller.”

Bett squealed in happiness. She hopped once, then said, “I’ll make it up to you, Jane. We’ll get another one, for sure.” She flopped into a gooey ball of crystalline light as her voice came out of the air, “This’ll take me a while.”

Jane chuckled once, asking, “Crystal Slime?”

Scallion said, “Took us a year in Portal to find one. Light slimes are rare enough; might as well go for the prettiest one.”

Bett rolled toward the unicorn, saying, “This is going to get messy. I gotta eat the whole thing,”

Marric said to Jane, “You and I can scour the rest of the bodies.”

Jane looked away from the unicorn, saying, “Sure. We can do that.”

As Jane and Marric walked toward the battlefield and Bett vanished into the corpse of the unicorn, Scallion stepped toward them.

Scallion whispered, “Thanks for this.” He added, “This unicorn is the last step for us. After we’re all satisfied with enough hunts, Bett and I are going to the islands and leaving this life behind. It’s time to start a family.”

Jane smiled. She nodded as she walked with Marric toward the battlefield.

She asked, “So which ability did you pick out? You get one for completing the Class, right?”

Marric smiled, looking forward. He said, “Mind Mage unique option.”

“Don’t tell me then.” Jane asked, “You guys have your own secret society around the world, don’t you?”

“People think that.” Marric frowned a little, as he said, “But it’s… Well. It’s not a society. You see...” He said, “The class ability I picked? It’s a minor aura. All it does is check to see if people are under mental influences. For the most part, this is all Mind Mages do.”

Jane asked, “How would you know in the case of a reacher’s [Thought Fog]?”

“Trade secret, but I can tell you that it takes training, which I have.” Marric added, “We got all the reachers, Jane. Today’s fight really is over.”

Jane nodded, silently, wanting to believe Marric.

- - - -

It took ten minutes of walking, but Jane and Marric arrived on the battlefield. Scorched land and severed bodies littered the prairie. It was a gruesome sight, and smell. Entrails and blood, shit and fear. The scents of horror layered a gentle western breeze, as the late afternoon sun turned slight hills and scattered corpses into long shadows.

Jane and Marric began the heavy work of sorting through the bodies.

Jane conjured white sheets across the ground as funeral shrouds for the dead people. Marric telekinetically moved the long limbed bodies of the vinespawn and reachers into an uncoordinated pile. These reachers had no rings on their fingers; they were young, with arms only several meters long.

After twenty minutes of sorting through bodies, the monster corpses were stacked and burning with a [Cleansing Flame]. Marric switched to helping Jane with the human bodies. She had only gotten halfway through them all.

After an hour, all of the human, incani, and orcol victims of the unicorn were laid in their shrouds, and covered. All thirty-seven of them. There were no dragonkin. Jane tried to think if she had ever seen a dead wrought body; she had not.

Most of the unicorn’s victims were completely nude, with wounds of all sorts. All of them were skinny and shoeless, with bloody feet and a form that could only come from a forced, constant march, with zero food or care for themselves. Some of them were brain dead well before the fight. The rest were a mix of cannibals, and people too strong to leave alive on the battlefield. Of those that did have clothes and items on them, Jane and Marric took their personal effects and laid them on top of the shrouds.

Jane did not envy Marric, Scallion, and Bett’s side of the unicorn fight; they had had to kill people because Jane couldn’t kill the unicorn fast enough.

Marric sat beside the tenth body that had items on it. He knelt next to the shrouded corpse, his hand touching a twine and stone bracelet on the white covering; the only item recovered on the otherwise nude body. Teal magic covered his hand, and the item. After a moment, the glow faded.

Marric said, “The same town as eight of the other nine. The unicorn called to them in the middle of the night. It told them to bring it their children, or kill those around them, and then to serve it until their own death. She brought the beast her twins. They were only four months old.”

Jane breathed calmly, letting the horror wash off of her.

Marric stood up, blinking hard. He said, “I’m going to stop there.” He turned back to the body just before the young mother. A guild badge laid upon that white shroud. “He’s the only one with a badge.”

Jane said, “You going to try again?”

Marric said, “No. That one has been through too much to get any pertinent [Object Reading].”

A telepathic signal came to Jane. Bett’s voice was slightly excited, ‘I’m done. It took well. Do you guys want to see it?’

Marric said aloud, “Absolutely not.” He quickly wove a group connection, sending, ‘No unicorn form in this part of the world.’

‘I figured as much—’

The air shifted purple. Bett and Scallion stepped onto the field, next to Jane and Marric.

Bett continued, “—but I had to ask.” She held up a small, prismatic horn; one of the unicorn’s smaller spikes of its crown. “I got [Lightwalk] before I could finish the whole body. No mental abilities, though. I knew I wouldn’t, but it was still odd.” She tossed the small horn to Jane. “Here.”

Jane caught the small horn. It was only six inches long and without any twists, but it caught the light like a prism, holding onto the energy within, shattering white to color inside of itself. “Thanks.” She could not smile standing beside corpses, but she managed to say, “That’s great.”

Scallion looked across the field at the rows of bodies, then back to Jane to say, “Let’s send them off?”

Marric said, “I’ve gone through ten that still had clothing and items on their person. They all seemed to come from the same place except for this adventurer.” Marric gestured to the body behind him. “We can just turn in his badge, after we burn the bodies.”

Bett’s joy faded as she saw the bodies, and then it gutted. She nodded, saying, “Of course. The ground is still wet enough to grow a proper pyre. Anyone else got [Grow] besides Scallion and I?”

Jane said, “I do.”

“Me, as well,” Marric said.

“Let’s make a pyre for… forty bodies, then?” Bett asked, “How many, exactly?”

Jane said, “Thirty seven.”

- - - -

The adventurers laid thirty seven white-wrapped bodies onto grass that had been [Grow]n to the size of bamboo, and stacked high. As the sun dipped below the western horizon, Jane lit the fire, then bloomed it large to catch under every corpse. Soon, heavy smoke lifted into the sky. Scallion gave an oral prayer to Phagar, asking the god of death and time to ferry these poor souls to wherever their destiny demanded.

The fire would burn well past sunset, but the adventurers left long before then.

When all eyes were gone, and the only beings around were bugs and field rabbits, another came to the funeral pyre. He descended on the ash and the bones with the touch of the divine. Bones became ephemeral, vanishing from under the ash. Ash became the food for new life to grow. Then he left, quick as he had come.

- - - -

Marric went back to his preferred registrar, back across the mountains in the morning. He returned after a few hours, ready to continue the hunt.

“You came back.” Jane said, “I had doubts.”

Marric smiled, saying, “I was held up by a thief and a pair of guards.”

Jane said, “I don’t know if I believe that.”

- - - -

Marric, Bett, and Scallion stood beside Jane, as Jane held the small unicorn spike up for the old lady behind the guildhouse quest counter.

The old woman, in a less than professional way, said, “Ach. Good on ye’ then. You’ll be wanten more unicorn quests, will ye? You selling that horn? Tis only worth a few hundred.”

“We want more unicorn quests, but we’re not selling this.” Jane put the spike in her pocket, then spoke for the group, “Any quests that you get.”

“Sure thing.” The woman stamped Jane’s team’s papers with a large ink stamp, ‘complete!’, then spiked the paper onto a nearby metal rod. She asked, “Where you be hanging out? In the lobby with the rest of the schmucks?”

“Aye, ma’am,” Jane said. “We’ve gotten pretty good at Wizard’s Towers.”

The old woman smirked, saying, “Go on, then. Rohn’ll want to speak to you later, I’m sure.”

The four of them went to the lobby and found a good table.

- - - -

Scallion’s head laid on the table as he gently snored. Marric laid down a ‘5’ against the Tower’s ‘2’, but Jane quickly laid down a ‘5’ of her own, snatching up both Marric’s card and the floor card.

They had finished lunch an hour ago, purchased from the guild restaurant. If there was one thing Jane was glad for about Killtree it was that the guild restaurant was pretty darn good. Now, they were back to playing Wizard’s Towers, for about the hundredth time. They weren’t the only ones killing time. Every other table in the twenty table room held a similar group of people waiting for something to happen.

Guildmaster Rohn made his first appearance of the day, walking into the lobby in his off-white armor. He looked around. He spotted Jane’s group. With every eye in the room on him, he called out, “Jane. Marric. Bett. Scallion.”

While the rest of the room groaned, Bett had already jabbed Scallion awake by the time Rohn called out ‘Jane’. Marric and Jane quickly shoved the cards back into their boxes, then followed a very awake Bett and a half-asleep Scallion down the hall, where Rohn had already disappeared.

In a room at the end of the hallway, Rohn stood beside his desk, and another stood beside Rohn.

From the tips of his shiny black boots, to his tailored black pants and jacket and the perfect quaff of his grey hair, this older human man, with piercing blue eyes, was clearly a man of wealth and power. He held himself upright and firm while his gaze traveled from Scallion, to linger on Bett, to pass over Marric, to land on Jane, and stay there.

Rohn spoke in a professional way, “This is Baron Blackfield. The unicorn you killed rampaged through his land. He is here to thank you and ask you a few questions, if you would be so kind as to oblige.” He said, “He already knows who you are.”

“Thank you for your service.” Blackfield said, “You were very thorough with cleaning up the bodies. This is not how it is done around here, but I will not fault you for your religious practices. I just need to know if you came across a young woman with dark red hair, lots of freckles, and a bracelet made of red twine and riverstone.”

Jane flinched. Blackfield noticed. His face seemed to fall as his eyes watered.

Marric said, “Yes. We did.”

Blackfield said, “That’s... That’s…” He calmed. He said, “Thank you for avenging her.” He turned to Guildmaster Rohn, to say, “Thank you. I recommend them for the advanced list.” He turned back to Jane, saying, “It was a hard thing you all pulled off. That unicorn must have survived a dozen years of raids on Killtree to get to that size. I don’t know how you managed to do it, but I suggest you keep your methods secret. There are those who would follow you and assault you in the middle of your attack, hoping to kill both you and the monster.”

Marric said, “Thank you for your words of warning, Baron. We will take them very seriously.”

Blackfield nodded. “Quite. And now I must be off. Thank you again for coming to this land. If you four are ever in the need for some assistance with the law or whatnot, I will owe you one.”

The baron blipped away in a shattering of yellow light.

“That was fast,” Bett said.

Guildmaster Rohn said, “The nobility are very busy.” He continued, “Since Baron Blackfield has recommended you for the advanced list, this also means that you are eligible to cast magic in the city, as long as you keep it quiet. You can [Teleport] in and out of the guild if you want, but if I see you abusing this privilege then it won’t just be your rights I take away.” He added, “And that team from the other day that killed the first unicorn of the season has already died, to the man. You get first shot at the unicorn that took them apart.” Rohn tapped a folder on his desk. “If you want it.”

Jane said, “We do.”

“I thought you would.” Rohn handed the folder over to Jane. “You might have to track it for a bit, but it’s out there. It’s smaller than the last one, but don’t let size fool you. They’re a lot faster when they’re smaller.”

Jane took the folder. She turned to her team. “Back to base?”

Bett said, “Yup.”

Scallion put his hand on Bett’s shoulder, then said, “See you there.”

Both of them vanished in a blip of purple. Marric left with a nod, and a teal blip. Jane followed.

- - - -

Bett sat on one end of a long bench in the sun on the mountain slope, leaning back, soaking up the rays. Scallion and Marric sat inside on comfortable seats as they [Scry]ed for the unicorn. They had been at it for the last two hours. It was a nice day to be outside, and since Jane was not equipped to [Scry] over time or distance like Marric or Scallion could [Scry], she went outside to join Bett.

Jane sat down beside Bett. “Did that unicorn have dragon essence?”

Bett sighed out into the sky. “Yes.” She said, “This has happened before, though. It’s not a big deal for me. I just gotta wait it out and take some appropriate precautions.”

“Wait it out?” Jane was genuinely confused. “Dragon essence goes away?”

“Yup. It’s the only one that does.” Bett looked to Jane, scrunching her face quizzically. She looked away, saying, “If you want to be a Polymage this is some important, hidden knowledge that you gotta know.” She said, “If you make yourself meek and mild or if you’re around other, stronger dragons, your dragon essence drains away. If you’re the biggest shit for a thousand kilometers or more, depending on your level of essence, then your dragon essence grows. If you have a low dragon essence, nothing happens. If you have anything except a low essence, then you’re stronger, faster, smarter, and you live longer. Dragons are only immortal because of their unique essence. This is why they’re always hunting each other. Either for territory or for essence.”

Jane listened, her eyes going a little wide. She had never heard this much about dragon essence before.

Bett continued, “If you get low dragon essence and you stay low, it will go away in about a month or two. Quicker, if you take certain steps. You can figure out whatever steps work for you on your own. That’s too personal of a conversation, for me.” She added, “Anyway. Even if you get rid of it as soon as you can, you still go through withdrawl.

“It’s horrible. Puking and shitting everything out, all the time. But it will pass. It’ll take a month, but it’ll pass.” She said, “I’ve done it before. No big deal.” She continued, “Going from the first tiers of [Dragon Body] to zero will make you feel like you want to die, and that lasts for a year. Healing doesn’t work on this sort of pain. I haven’t done that myself, but I’ve heard the horror stories.” She stressed, “But going from high dragon essence, to less, will kill you.”

A breeze blew across the mountainside, warm and comfortable.

Jane said, “Thank you for that. I didn’t know.”

“I could tell.” Bett said, “I only told you because you’re going for Polymage. Best keep that knowledge under your shirt, and to yourself. There’s a lot in there I didn’t say, and I won’t say. But you’re smart enough to figure most of it out, I think. Don’t go spreading that around, either.”

Jane said, “Good advice.”

Jane sat on one side of the stone bench. Bett sat on the other.

Jane asked, “Is your water slime bigger?”

“About double the size.” Bett said, “I want to try for ooze. Having a core is way too much of a liability. How’d you manage to do it? You didn’t actually kill an ooze and then try to eat it, did you?”

Jane said, “I gathered forty flame slimes in a depression in the ground then I ate them all as a flame slime. I retained the mass, and meditated away the pain while the transformation occurred. It was still painful as fuck, but I woke up as an ooze. My core was gone. I also got 5 points for successfully transforming a Familiar Form.”

Bett winced. “Fuck. I was afraid you were going to say that.”

“I never planned on going with a slime form so I never really researched slimes, or oozes for that matter.” Jane added, “Until I realized it was a possibility. And then it was just… It was what I needed to do.”

“I had a friend… years ago. They did what you did and it did not go well.” Bett said, “We had to put him down.”

“… Sorry for your loss.”

“Thanks.” Bett looked out across the horizon. Fields of flowers stretched out across the land below the mountain. “He failed to complete the transformation… 25 years ago, by now.”

Jane watched the flowers with Bett for a while. Eventually, they spoke of different monsters. Bett loved her slime forms. She had several, from water, to wind, to iron, to crystal. If she was going to go for an ooze form, she would have chosen a Crystal Ooze, but that would be impossible. Finding forty crystal slimes? When it took a year to find one? No thanks. Her second choice was wind, just because [Air Body] was already so useful. Jane was still partial to her own, non-slimey list, though a water slime would make getting [Water Body] a lot easier. Prismatic Octopuses, which were native to Bett’s Archipelago Nergal, were great on paper, but according to Bett they were shit in practice. All those soft, wiggly arms were easy enough to control, but controlling the skin of the Prismatic Octopus to better blend in with your surroundings? That took years of practice. To top it off, they weren’t that fast in the water. Not compared to a water slime.

Marric eventually came out of the house, saying, “Found it.”

- - - -

Killing the second unicorn went a lot faster.

Jane knew, this time, exactly what would happen when she plopped onto the scene. And this time, when the world around her turned to fake trees and false flowers, and the five meter tall unicorn tried to stomp her from out of nowhere, Jane flowed upward, blasting the unicorn with fire rivaling a furnace.

The unicorn took off running, while Marric and Scallion controlled the revealed battlefield, and water slime Bett harried everything she could reach with her precision blasts of cutting water. She tried to slice the fleeing unicorn, but her slice went wide at the last possible second. Jane slunk into shadows, popping up around the unicorn for the second time. This time Jane’s fire furnace attack was too much for the creature. The unicorn fell to the ground, screaming in pain. Jane smothered the unicorn, diving into its tentacled maw, reaching down into the creature to fry it from the inside out.

Jane had killed the unicorn within a single minute, releasing almost all of the people it had dominated. Marric, Scallion, and Bett had already killed all the monsters.

Pure confusion filled the battlefield as people turned on each other, some of them monsterized and already cannibals, the others just dominated into committing horrible acts. No one had any idea which was which, so Scallion trapped the ten survivors in individual gravitational bubbles. Some of them screamed and cried, hovering in their own private holding cells. Some of them roared and demanded blood. None of them were quiet.

Marric went around, checking the people. He executed four he identified as monsters, while the other six were let go. None of them gave any indication that they were thankful for the rescue, and since they were in the middle of nowhere right now, all six of them demanded help getting back to town.

Jane, as a human, said, “Of course we’ll help you.”

Scallion said, “We already gave them conjured clothes. The nearest town is only ten kilometers south—”

A dirty man in conjured, clean clothes, said, “You will take responsibility for us!”

A dirty woman in conjured, clean clothes, said, “That aren’t my home! My home is back that way.” She pointed north. “And it’s gone! I demand money to start a new life.”

Scallion muttered, “Oh holy shit I’m going to kill them.”

“You and what fuck’en army, bloke!” said a young man. “That one-corn couldn’t kill me! You think you gotta chance in hell! Come get it!”

Scallion splattered a [Cleanse] across them all. Jane winced, as thick air tore away dirt and dried blood. The yelling started again, louder.

“How dare you cast magic at us!”

“I aught ta kill ye!”

“Now the monsters can smell us, ya daft arsehole!”

Scallion yelled at the people, “I’m done! Fuck you!” He blipped away in a shattering of purple light.

Marric and Bett both raced to say, “Bye!” first.

Marric vanished in teal. Bett vanished in purple.

Jane blipped over to the unicorn corpse, which she still hadn’t the chance to eat, then [Stoneshape]d a deep hole, carrying the corpse with her underground. She closed off the entrance, save for a pair of holes leading to the surface. One quick transformation later and she was a shadowspider.

She spent the next half an hour eating the monster in peace, starting with the brain and the heart.

Polymorph, instant, 500 MP ~{Favored Spell}~

Change your physical body.

Familiar Forms: 4/10

~Jane Flatt

~Shadow Spider

~Flame Ooze

~Unicorn

Then, she set to eating the body, including the horns. By the time she was done with the corpse, she had gained her first light essence ability. After she crunched and ate the horns, dissolving their twisting prismatic forms with her decaying venom, she jumped ahead several steps down the path to [Lightwalk]. The horns were practically pure light essence.

Radiant Steps, instant, personal, 2 MP per second.

Race with the sun.

She left experimenting with the form for later. For now, she transformed back into a person and returned to the people they had rescued.

They were still there, standing in the field, yelling at each other. Some of them had already started looting the other bodies. At Jane’s return they all turned on her, demanding answers.

Jane pointed south, “I’ll escort you down that way, to that town. Or, I can [Teleport] you to Killtree. Take your pick, or stay here with the dead.”

Two of them instantly picked Killtree. Jane deposited them on the outskirts, then came back to the other four. She walked those four ten kilometers south, to whatever town was next on the unicorn’s path of destruction. It was not a fun walk. The four rescued people demanded Jane give them money for a new life. She remained silent, and walked.

When they got to the town, the rescued people demanded more from Jane.

She fled in a blip of dark blue light, reappearing beside the corpses from the battle. She didn’t care about ceremony this time. She just telekinetically shoved all of the bodies together and threw a [Cleansing Fire] at the stacked dead. She left before they finished burning.

She returned to base.

Scallion greeted her with, “Congrats on the unicorn!”

Jane smiled, but her heart wasn’t in it. “Thanks.”

Scallion saw. He said, “We’ll stick around for [Lightwalk], if you want.” He called over to Marric, asking, “Do you want [Lightwalk], too? I’m thinking about it for myself.”

Marric said, “Eh. Maybe I should.”

“Good!” Scallion said, “Yes. You should. We’re capable of killing these unicorns. We’ve proven the first time wasn’t a fluke. Now, if we remain calm and focused, we can get through this entire unicorn season and each of us can end up with [Lightwalk]. Maybe.”

- - - -

Jane sat across from Bett at their usual table in the guildhall, saying, “But slimes are so boring!”

“They’re not boring!” Bett laughed, saying, “They’re dependable! And aside from your flame ooze, it means you always have some of your necessary element nearby. The power is inside of you, all along.”

Jane laughed, saying, “That is just so saccharine. My teeth are practically rotting out right now.”

“You got weird sayings.” Bett said, “I don’t understand what that’s supposed to mean at all.”

Jane frowned at her, saying, “It’s—”

“Unicorn posted!” came a yell from the side of the room, near the posting wall. A man Jane didn’t know held aloft a sheet of paper, rushing to a group of people standing around a table, saying, “I got it! Let’s go!”

His team was already out of their seats and ready for action. Several other people around the guildhall were also out of their seats, but those ones muttered angry words almost too quiet to hear. Jane and Bett watched as the yelling guy raced out of the guildhouse. Then they watched as one of the muttering, angry teams got mean looks in their eyes, and all of them stood up out of their seats. The angry team left the building, likely chasing after the first team.

Bett muttered, “You know what comes next, right?”

Jane frowned. She did not answer Bett.

Scallion came back from the bathroom. He instantly recognized a shift in the atmosphere of the room. He whispered, “What happened?”

Marric continued to snore quietly in his chair.

Scallion looked at the orcol, then said, “Not much, I guess?”

Bett said, “Unicorn posted. Team A got the posting. Then I’m pretty sure Team Bastards decided to race after Team A.”

Jane said, “Looks like murder again.”

Marric shook awake. He wiped a tiny trail a drool from his mouth. “I miss something?”

Jane said, “Nothing that we need to concern ourselves with. We’ll get the next one.”

Four hours later, Rohn called them into his office. Both Team A and Team Bastards had failed. The second ambushed the first while they were fighting the unicorn. There were no survivors. Rohn handed them the quest paper. They blipped to base. Marric and Scallion began [Scrying] for the unicorn.

- - - -

Bett and Jane sat on the bench outside their mountain base while Marric and Scallion did their thing.

Bett said, “I heard that if these local adventurers don’t routinely kill big targets like the unicorns, they’re forced to war against their neighbors.”

“I heard that they believe death is not the end.” Jane said, “They keep it quiet, but they believe that if they do well for their leaders, they’ll be resurrected into new bodies.”

“Where’d you hear that?” Bett recoiled, saying, “Necromancy? Really?”

“I’ve been listening in all around me.” Jane flicked a bit of shadow over her hand, saying, “These unicorns always go for me first and hard, so I’ve been working on my other senses. I can’t be an ooze in the guildhouse, but I can do this.” Shadow flickered downward, crawling in the cracks of the mountainside. Jane said, “It’s almost the same as ooze listening.”

Bett hummed, then nodded. She gazed across the flower fields. “[Shadowalk] is pretty good.” She held up her hand, flickering a white light across her purple skin, saying, “I’m working on this. It’s… difficult.” She extended her hand. Light poured across the ground. Spots of red bloomed atop green sticks, while green blobs spread below, turning a patch of stone ground into false flowers. “It’s considerably easier as a unicorn.” She took her hand away. The ‘flowers’ vanished. “The horn splits the light into colors so I don’t have to, but my main problem is form work.”

Jane looked up, saying, “It’s a bit too bright to show you...” Jane reached down with [Stoneshape] to pull a thin umbrella over her head, casting a shadow across a small space in front of her. With a gesture, a tiny unicorn made of darkness materialized out of the shadows. It was a unicorn of this world; not the ones that Jane had grown up seeing. It pranced around in the shade, its horn a twisted thing. Overall, it was perfectly shaped. She said, “It’s taken a while and I had some help along the way… I don’t have to worry about color, though. So it’s a mite easier.”

Bett smiled, saying, “Still impressive.”

Jane dismissed the dark unicorn, saying, “I’m thinking of going after every body skill.”

“I considered it.” Bett said, “Ten years ago, if I had all the skills you already have I would have gone for it. [Shadowalk] is the hardest. But now? I want kids.” She added, “I hear you get a Special Action for getting all of them. No one I ever talked to knew what it was, though.”

“I read about that, too. But no definitive—”

“Found it! It’s a small one again.” Scallion’s voice came from the stone base behind them. “Come on, girls!”

- - - -

Jane plopped onto the field.

This time, they managed to kill the unicorn and save twenty four people.

After executing four monstrous cannibals, Marric took hard control of the situation, casting a wide calming effect on the roaring, half-naked people. When the remnants of Team A and Team Bastards came out of the rescued people, no one stopped a woman from Team A, named Padarah, from stabbing and slashing and attacking the two survivors from Team Bastards.

Jane just watched, slightly numb to it all, as Padarah screamed out her hatred of the two men. The story of what had happened between Team A and Team Bastards came out in her screams. The crowd took her word as truth. The crowd tore the two men apart, and Jane did nothing to stop them. Scallion and Bett just watched. Marric stood back, his face a stone mask.

The four of them, and Padarah from Team A, when Team Bastards was truly dead and gone, helped to [Teleport] people wherever they wanted to go.

Jane got the unicorn corpse.

- - - -

Jane, Scallion, Bett, and Marric, sat around the dinner table. No one really spoke much since the last unicorn. They ate in silence. Jane had cooked tonight; shepherd's pie, with lots of slow-cooked spicy meat and vegetables under a large layer of mashed potatoes and cheese. Everyone seemed to like it, but no one had said anything.

Jane broke the silence, “This is getting tough.”

Marric said, “Yup.”

“Yeah,” Bett said.

“We can stop.” Scallion said, “We got what we came for.”

“… Want to burn down the Forest?” Jane asked.

Bett burst out a laugh, while Marric groaned.

Scallion said, “That just makes the unicorns angry.”

Marric said, “It’s been burned back for two thousand kilometers. The unicorns still come down this way. They eat children in order to reproduce. This is an impossible problem.”

“It’s not impossible.” Scallion said. “These people need walls around their cities. They need to formally institute Polite Society. They need laws. They need a lot of things we cannot give them, and we should not even try.” He added, “We need to worry about ourselves. We need to decide if we’re going to continue, or not.”

Marric said, “It’s getting… It’s getting really hard to kill the cannibals.”

Scallion said, “Don’t judge me too harshly when I say this, but if we just let them all go, including the cannibals, I don’t think the average person’s experience in Killtree will change.”

“Blackfield didn’t seem like such a bad guy.” Jane said, “I was expecting a lot worse than him.”

“Me too.” Scallion said. “But he’s a person in charge, and this is all partially his fault, too.”

Bett said, “I say we keep going. Marric, you still haven’t gotten anything from this.”

Jane said, “Point out the cannibals. I can kill them.”

Marric said, “Ah. No. Sorry. I’m on a quest now to uncover monstrous people and kill them.” He added, “This is as good of a use of my time as any. I’m just bemoaning. Don’t mind me.”

Jane looked to the orcol. Marric looked to his empty plate.

Scallion said, “Then we continue.” He added, “And dinner was great. I might need to change my mind about these potatoes.”

Bett said, “This was a great dinner, Jane. Thank you.”

“Yup.” Marric said, “It was very good. Thanks.”

Jane smiled softly, looking away from everyone. “Thanks.”

- - - -

Over the next ten days, the height of Unicorn Season came to Killtree.

Jane, Scallion, Marric, and Bett, killed another seven unicorns. The other adventuring teams in Killtree’s Guildhouse, the ones who managed to survive those bloody first days, managed to bag another twenty-one unicorns between the lot of them. Jane gained [Lightwalk] after the third kill. [Fire Body] and [Lightwalk] went together well. Jane was now able to zip through the sunlight and hold her fiery body onto the fleeing unicorns. Shadows were great, but they were hard to find around unicorns.

Lightwalk, instant, close range, 5 MP per second + Variable

You are the light.

After Jane got her upgrade to [Lightwalk], the unicorns went to Marric and Scallion. Between the both of them, they began stockpiling the necessary parts to create a suit of armor, to try for a [Lightwalk] for themselves.

They were not able to collect all the necessary horns and bones and leather, before the situation changed.

Upon killing their tenth unicorn, Guildmaster Rohn called Jane’s team into his office.

Rohn stood to the side of his desk, wearing his normal off-white [Conjure Armor], though this time it looked a bit nicer than usual. Flourishes and engravings adorned his chestplate, shoulders, and gauntlets.

On the other side of his desk stood a woman in dark leathers and long black hair.

Rohn said, “Welcome, Jane, Marric, Scallion, and Bett.”

Jane and her team entered the office. There was more than enough space for all of them.

Rohn gestured to the silent woman, saying, “This is Elite Redwood.”

Redwood nodded, saying, “Yo.”

Jane nodded at the woman.

“She is here to invite you four on a mission, if you wish to accept.” Rohn said, “The benefit is promotion to nobility. This is a name-only promotion. As you are foreigners, you will not be allowed control over policy or the ability to demand taxes in the city, but you will be allowed to build stone property wherever you wish in Killtree, with regard only given to other nobles. If you choose to create a settlement outside Killtree, you may demand taxes from those who flock to your side. You will be the only ones allowed to live in stone houses, though.” He asked, “Are you interested?”

All four of them had already talked about this possibility, so Jane spoke for the group, “We will hear you out.”

Redwood flashed a smile, then said, “Great! It’s an Elite Promotion quest, so don’t expect it to be that easy, but since you’ve got your flame ooze and two [Lightwalk]s among you, and a Mind Mage and a Control mage? You should have an easier time than most people gunning for a promotion to nobility.”

Redwood said, “It’s taken us a week, but we’ve found the Ancient Unicorn birthing all of this season’s unicorns. We’re killing it, and you’re helping. That’s the quest. This Ancient Unicorn is about twenty meters tall, not including the horns, but it has a cadre of dominated wyrms. We’ve already identified the four wyrms under this one’s control. Eyebeam, [Ward], [Stoneshape], and [Lightshape].” She added, “Know now that the illusion aura of an Ancient Unicorn is less an illusion aura, and more an actual transformation of the land. Keep that in mind when accepting this quest.”

Rohn added, “Your Participation in the kill will determine how much of the resultant loot you are eligible for. If any of you do enough to get the main horn then that’s an instant [Lightwalk], if you’ve already got some way to absorb the essence. If you choose to have it made into armor and items and to absorb it that way, then there’s a 90% chance of [Lightwalk].” Redwood added, “And we have to kill the unicorn before the wyrms, or else the unicorn will run. So that’s another problem for the pile.”

Jane stuck to the plan, “We would need a few hours to discuss this turn of events. Is there a hard time limit to accepting this offer?”

Redwood said, “I can give you an hour. The unicorn is spotted but it could move on.”

Jane spoke for the group. “That’s fine.” She held out a hand to Marric, exactly like they had planned. “We’ll be right back.”

Marric took her hand. Scallion blipped away with Bett in a flash of purple. The world turned teal for one brief second. And then again.

The four of them were back at base.

Scallion instantly said, “So they’re going to try and kill us halfway through, no doubt.”

Marric said, “I’m not so sure.”

Scallion scowled at Marric. “You cannot possibly be that naive! Not after what we’ve seen so far.”

“I’m not.” Marric said, “But we knew this was a possibility. Surely you’ve spoken to some of the other teams. They all say the same thing. This nobility quest is what most of them are going for, and they almost always kill the Ancient Unicorn.”

Jane said, “None of those people would make good nobles. They’re all ruthless killers. Even that woman we saved, Padarah? She went on to join another team and then that team ambushed another, killing them and stealing that unicorn kill.”

Scallion said, “Padarah’s team is directly behind us in kills. If we don’t do this, Padarah’s going to get the offer. They’re going to take it, and she’s going to get control over others. Legal, noble control.” Scallion stressed, “She would kill every single person who wrongs her. She would become part of the problem. This is normal for Killtree. We don’t have to be here.”

Bett said, “Saying it like that... I wonder if Padarah is going to try and kill us right now.”

The four of them looked to the door of their stone, mountainside base. Nothing happened.

Jane said, “That got my heartbeat rising.”

Marric and Bett laughed, while Scallion sighed out a held breath.

Jane asked Marric, “Have you heard anything about the power of an Ancient Unicorn’s [Dominate]?”

“It’s obviously stronger if it can truly control wyrms.” Marric said, “But no. I’ve never heard anything special about Ancient Unicorns.”

“… Never?” Jane asked.

“Does that mean you’ve never heard of them before?” Scallion asked.

Marric said, “No. I’ve heard of them. But I thought they were a myth. I always heard that unicorns reproduced by eating children and transforming them into new unicorns.”

Bett said, “If there was a damn library or a Knowledge Mage around this town that I trusted I would want to go and find out the truth.” She added, “This discrepancy is uncomfortable.”

“Aside from conflicting information: this may be a trap of some sort.” Jane said, “Do we want to cut our losses here?”

Bett said, “Yes. I vote we just pick up and leave.”

“I vote to leave,” Scallion said.

Marric said, “I think we should stay. I would have heard something about there being a trap here for unicorn hunters if such a thing were actually happening.” He said, “If we leave, others might die to the Ancient Unicorn.” He added, “I might have been wrong about the reason for unicorn attacks on human lands. It might not be a pregnancy thing. It’s entirely possible that this is a [Thought Fog] sort of thing, where the unicorns need to eat brains to produce their mental abilities. Except they mainly focus on the brains of children. Neither of you two got any mental abilities from your unicorn forms, right?”

“None,” Bett said.

Jane said, “None here, either. I haven’t really played around with the form, though. But the [Aura of Freedom] is there, like expected. [Lightwalk] and [Lightshape] alongside the unicorn’s prismatic horns produces much of the illusions I’ve seen out there in every fight.”

Marric said, “So. I think we should stay. If we kill the Ancient Unicorn, then that’s saving a lot of lives.”

Jane said, “I was already going to vote to stay, but if Padarah is next in line, then keeping her out of the nobility is just as important as killing the Ancient Unicorn.”

Scallion grumbled, saying, “Come on! Both of you can’t really be this dumb.”

“It’s not dumb to want to help people,” Marric said.

Scallion said, “It’s dumb to help these people.”

Bett sighed, saying, “I’ve changed my mind.” She said, “I vote to stay.”

“What!” Scallion shouted.

Bett said, “We don’t have to go in unaware.” She asked the orcol, “Marric. Don’t you have [Truthsense]?”

Marric paused. He frowned. He winced, then said, “I already used it. Neither Redwood or Rohn are directly lying.”

Bett said, “The most forthcoming Mind Mage I’ve ever seen.” She turned to Scallion, saying, “See?”

Scallion said, “I see problems, Bett.”

Bett said, “I see opportunity.”

“You don’t want to live here, do you?!” Scallion asked, frantically.

“No!” Bett said, “But I would feel a lot better about our chances down south if we were able to kill a threat like an Ancient Unicorn. I don’t want to do this for them. I want to do this for us.”

Scallion breathed. He looked up and away. He stayed like that for a moment, before facing the group, and Bett. He said, “Fine. And when this turns out to be a trap, know that I’m going to say ‘I told you so’ loud enough that it counts as an attack.”

Jane asked, “What sort of monsters live in the archipelago, anyway?”

Bett said, “Dragonwhales. Island Turtles.”

Scallion continued, “Water oozes.”

“Oh yeah. That’s a big one.” Bett said, “Leviathans. You get the occasional actual dragon, too. They like to eat the big things out there.” She added, “Black Sharks are a favorite snack.”

Jane asked, “So? Decision reached? A full consensus?”

Scallion sighed. He said, “Let’s get back to the guild. I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”

- - - -

In an otherwise vacant staging area in the mountains far to the north, and far, far above the treeline, Jane stood by an arched window. She gazed out at the green land to the west, and thought. Snow piled up outside the window, while cold wind blew flurries into the staging area. Some of the snow dusted Jane’s dark blue winter coat and gathered in the false fur surrounding her face, but most of it gathered in the crooks and corners of the stone all around her.

Marric stepped up beside her, wearing his own huge, teal winter outfit. His head was completely exposed, though tufts of teal fur rimmed his green neck. Snow landed in his dark hair, but it melted even as it touched him. He said, “This’ll be the last one. I’m gone after this.”

“Mind telling me where you’re going?”

They had talked around the subject a few times, but now, Jane laid the question out there.

Marric smirked, as he said, “Mind telling me if you’re Jane Flatt of Spur?”

“The others are at least polite enough to pretend I’m not.” Jane teased, “Why would I bother telling you something you already know?”

Marric chuckled. He said, “Because it’s easier on me if you speak of your secrets, that way I’m no longer bound by Mind Mage Law to only speak of what has already been spoken.”

“Oh?” Jane asked, sarcastically, “Is that a thing?”

“Bett spoke of my Law a few days ago, so you already know.”

“Is that what happened?” Jane teased, “I thought that was you drowning us in puzzle pieces and one of us finally breaking under the pressure to put them together.”

Marric acted all offended, saying, “You act as though it was malicious.”

Jane smiled as she turned her gaze from the tall orcol, to the green land, far below. Marric watched the Forest at her side.

Redwood stepped out of the nearby shadows wearing dark leathers and a dark mask. “Yo!”

Jane casually turned to her, saying, “Hello. We ready?”

Redwood paused. “Usually that freaks people out. But I guess you have [Shadowalk]. You must be pretty good with it.”

“I am.” Jane said, “I also have [Hunter’s Instincts]; but everyone has that one.”

Redwood said, “You’d be surprised the kind of people who try to make it in this life without [Hunter’s Instincts]. Anywho! Are the other two lovebirds done boinking each other? We’re ready when you are.”

Marric looked to the air. He turned back to Redwood, to say, “They’re done. They’re on their way.”

“Good.” Redwood asked, “Have you [Scry]ed the enemy, yet?”

“Yes,” Jane said.

Marric said, “Twenty meters tall, in a grove of trees four times that size and half as wide.”

“Yup!” Redwood said, “That’s her. This year’s Queen of the Forest. So here’s the plan. We’ve done this with mages with ooze forms before. It makes the whole thing a lot simpler, but it also makes it much harder on that one person. This part doesn’t need the full group to explain, just you, Jane.”

Jane listened. Marric watched the Forest as he, too, listened.

Redwood said, “She will go after you, relentlessly. She will be able to affect your mind, even with your mindless, coreless ooze body. This shouldn’t prove a problem, because she will drive you to attack her with a single, relentless focus. Since you already have [Greater Treat Wounds] and you will be able to retain some of your mind, all you have to do is focus on healing yourself.” Redwood said, “Usually we have to be a lot more complicated about this, but we all got lucky this year.”

Jane’s eyes went wide. She controlled herself to say, “Affecting my mind, through my ooze body?”

“Other mages have reported as such, yes.” Redwood said, “But like I said, it shouldn’t affect you much.”

Jane resolved herself. She said, “Fine. As long as I know ahead of time.”

“Good.” Redwood said, “I’ve been told the effect is a primal sort of triggering kind of thing. So—”

Scallion called out, “Hey!”

Jane turned. Scallion and Bett walked hand in hand down the stone hallway, toward Jane, Marric, and Redwood. Both of their faces seemed to glow, while Bett had a perpetual smirk. She tried to wipe her expression away, but it came back as she neared the group.

Redwood said, “Great. Everyone is here. We likely have four hours left in the day. The attack will begin at dusk. The Forest Queen does not sleep, but she does patrol her land slower at night.”

Jane asked, “Any monsters we have to be aware of besides wyrms and the Queen?”

“Reachers.” Redwood said, “But since you’ll all have mind protection anyway and they’re literally all going to go for Jane, they shouldn’t be a problem.” She looked to the air. Threads of intent flickered out from her. “One sec. Getting the teams—”

Three humans, each wearing the same black leathers and black mask as Redwood, blipped into the nearby air in a flourish of orange light; two men and one woman. All of them were taller than Redwood. They all deferred to Redwood, with small bows.

Redwood said, “A trio of great people, here. Hawthorne, Rowan, and Apple. They’ll be leading the incineration efforts.” She turned to Jane, saying, “I’m really glad you all chose to come. You’ve elected to put a bit of trust in us, and we Elites will strive to live up to that responsibility.” She spoke with enthusiasm in her voice, “Since Jane is a flame ooze and this is the Forest, the plan is going to hinge on that.” She added, “I’ve done this four times with an ooze in attendance and five times without, so I’m pretty confident that we’ll be okay. Just a warning. If we can’t kill her within ten minutes of engaging, everyone needs to evacuate. This is the plan...”

- - - -

Sunlight tilted across the Forest, casting long shadows through a tangled canopy. The land below was dangerous and wild, but it was not dark. Light glittered below the trees, like a second sun, or maybe a moon, peeking out from behind green clouds. Shaggy, long armed silver monsters, with maws for mouths and hands and feet much too small for their bodies, roamed that glittering twilight. Long wyrms, with too many arms and too many legs, and too many unhealing wounds across their entire bodies, undulated around trees thicker than they were, like quiet, well trained snakes. They followed their Queen through the illuminated dark.

For the Queen was everything.

She was the unicorn above all who walked in the center of a procession of countless monsters. Her subjects cheered for her with guttural roars and with offerings of meat; mostly the bodies of wyrms not fit to join her court, and of course, gifts of children stolen from elsewhere in the world.

Since her elevation to Queen she birthed a unicorn a day. Those progeny had since traveled into the human lands in order to return with gifts of calcified children in their gullets; like the most delicious teacakes in this world, or any other. Sure, some of her progeny failed to return, but that didn’t matter. She could just spawn more progeny. What was loss in the face of decadence?

And speaking of food! A bubbly, plopping light, appeared on the very edge of her vision. The queen gave a signal. In an instant or less the tiny morsel of light was brought to her. She caught the tidbit in her mouth and devoured it whole. It was delicious. The Queen loved the crunchy bit in the center, but she was always hungry, and these small morsels of light were so very, very small.

But hers was not the only mouth to feed, it was just the most important.

Watch now as her squads of reachers surround and flank their Queen, swinging their arms in rhythm to the stepping of her hooves, the size of orcols. She is much, much taller than her silver furred infantry, but the reachers are not so small themselves. Look there, as the Forest stretches up around her, the plants growing tall and wild. See her wyrms wrap themselves around those growing trees, flanking and protecting her as she takes her evening stroll. The wyrms are sure to wrap the trees in perfect mirrors of each other, for the Queen demands beauty and order, and her generals comply. She also demands merriment. Delight as shroomlings dance around her heavy feet, and cheer at her stride; they race to catch up, but they only manage to get themselves squished. Even the bugs and the birds flock to hail their Queen, all of them flying in sequence and delight, bringing song and joy to their rightful monarch.

Her tail is a cloud of white light, floating on an unseen air. Her mane is a cascade of white mist, light and airy, and the fluffiest thing in the world, besides all the rest of her. Her eyes are pools of darkness, drinking in the light. They see everything. The Queen’s mind is as sharp as her eyes, and though the small, inconsequential things sometimes fail to draw her gaze, that which she fails to see, her mind recognizes.

And her horn! Oh, her horn. See as it stretches from her forehead, a spike of prismatic radiance. A testament to artistry. A light in the dark. A second sun. The most beautiful thing to ever grace the Forest, besides the Queen herself.

But what is this? Something untoward appears in the sky. It is not a star, but it falls like one.

… What’s all that about?

The Queen looks up. The march stalls.

- - - -

Twilight wind whipped across Jane’s gooey, orange, radiant body. Tiny droplets of herself broke away, lost forever, no doubt, but she controlled enough of her body to form a tight ball of fire, [Fire Body] helping to secure almost every drop of self. The Ancient Unicorn’s procession was right below her. Jane was right on target.

The Queen stood at the head while her generals wrapped around the trees, growing beside the Queen. The entire Forest around the Queen looked like an ancient, primeval truth, but it was mostly a lie. When she passed, the trees would return to half of their size.

But while Jane saw them, they certainly saw her. The Queen looked up. Her nine meter long horn glinted with light. The world around the Queen flashed. The Queen stood revealed to Jane; she stood alone. Her procession became as the trees, melding into the wood like they were never there.

The Queen was also not twenty meters tall. If Jane had to guess, she would put the Queen closer to fifty.

The Queen’s eyes changed. Recognition dawned. She saw now that Jane was not just a falling ember. Jane felt as the Queen tried to touch her gooey mind. Like a cold spike, or a draining touch.

As the Forest canopy approached, a subtle rage that had been inside Jane ever since she was a little girl, that she had hammered into utility and tempered with training, shifted into something deeper. All the tiny injustices of her entire time on Veird and on Earth flickered into an inferno. How dare that little girl trick her into killing those muggers on the street! She should have killed her, too, and all the people they rescued from the unicorns over the past two weeks!

And her fucking father! He was the worst of them all! He was at school, while she was here, killing the monsters of the world, working to actually make this shitty, fucking, Veird, into some sort of livable space! And that Bett. Jane saw those eyes of hers, how she looked at Jane with disdain, how she wanted to knife Jane in her sleep. All incani were the same!

Fuck Silverite! How could she let those purple demons in town get away with any of their shit! How could she possibly choose to live with the Shades! She should have the Army assassinate every single Shade, and damn the weak-willed people in town. They were exactly like the people of Killtree; nothing more than fodder for the flame. If they couldn’t handle the monsters in the dark, then they should all just die.

Jane’s entire mind stretched wide. What filled the center was pure rage.

The forest was a tangle of shadows and light. Jane reached the canopy and burst wide open. Fire flared; a life too long hidden, now ignited. She ripped into the shadows, tearing out flame and light. She ripped into the light, tearing out fire and darkness. The Forest burned, and Jane helped that fire spread. In four flashing instants, forty meter tall trees were nothing more than fire, and that fire was spreading. As Jane coaxed fire into a conflagration, she saw yet another problem in front of her.

A three meter wide hoof, silver and heavy, slammed down—

Jane leapt right at the hoof, melding into the light surrounding the attack, spinning up and around the leg, burning white fur and scorching thick, monster flesh. The Queen leapt back, flickering through her own light, dropping Jane to the ground.

The Queen huffed, a great snorting burst of glittering light that blew across the forest floor. Jane did not need to hold on to the ground to keep from flying away. She ducked into the light streaming from the Queen’s nostrils, reaching with fire and hatred into the monster’s nose.

The Queen shifted left, leaving Jane to fall to the ground. But Jane did not fall, she followed the Queen, through the light.

With the disinterested air of nobility and a flick of her head, the Queen slashed with her horn, splitting the light. Jane fell from the air; a severed ball of flame. Half of her went out. Half of her fell to the ground. The Queen looked down upon the sad creature, as the sad creature looked up at her. The Queen stomped, quick as a meaningless death. Jane splattered against the forest like so much exhausted napalm.

So much for that attempt on her life. Now where was she? Oh yes. Her evening stroll. She stepped forward—

The Queen paused. She lifted her face to the sky.

Meteors swarmed, igniting the heavens, a hundred specks of fire and stone revealing themselves across the sky, a dozen kilometers in every direction. They fell, screaming, hurtling into the green. Fire and light ignited the night. Trees instantly caught fire. The Queen gestured, and the forest calmed. Fires turned to nothing. Blackened trees grew tall.

Whatever that was supposed to be, was not nearly enough.

- - - -

She crawled into a hole in the ground, hurt more than she had ever been hurt before. She was a small thing, glossed over in the flame and the fire of the burning forest. But she would not remain ignored and unknown for long. Her inner instincts screamed at her to do something to change her dire situation.

She was hungry. She needed to grow.

But something else, a higher reasoning perhaps, took iron hold of her needs. She needed to cast a healing spell. She could cast magic? Right! She could! She could get away with [Telep—

No.

She needed to kill the monster walking over her, ignoring her, thinking her dead and gone. If she was a real ooze, she would have been. But she was not.

She was Jane Flatt. She could do this.

Jane nestled further into the roots of the tree. She was in a tree! She recognized where she was! That was an improvement. But she was still so blind. Almost all of her was gone. She could barely see a foot in front of her goo, but she could see the tree roots. She knew her immediate surroundings.

As the world shook from heavy footfalls, and twisting wyrms crushed treebark up above, and so many smaller feet danced in merriment, Jane knew what she needed to do next. She [Stoneshape]d the dirt under herself into a hollow, dropping down into roots, into darkness.

Darkness was her friend. Not too long ago, a fallen god helped her learn a bit more about the darkness, and now, Jane vibrated his song, recalling a deep memory she hadn’t touched in months. Shadows flickered to dim life, then solidified. Jane touched upon a truth.

She saw everything.

Marric, roaring in the center of a treetop far away, yelling obscenities at reluctant people wrapped in black leather. They were safe in their forward base, while Jane was out there dying or dead.

Bett, staring out into the night, standing on a branch larger than herself.

Scallion, screaming ‘I told you so’, as he floated in the air.

Redwood and her mages, all of them wrapped in black leather, stood in their forward base, watching the horizon and the Queen’s procession, from so very far away. They were under a hundred layers of mental protection. None of them were in danger. But Redwood’s mask was off, showing her sad face and tired eyes. She spoke platitudes in the face of a roaring Marric. She said it was all over. Their archmage nearby spoke of his best spells already used. This Queen was abnormal. This Queen was a threat unlike any other.

Marric yelled at them. Tears fell down his face.

Jane came back to her surroundings. She looked at the Queen.

The Queen stopped. The procession stalled.

She spoke without moving her mouth, “Who is this, that calls the ancient magic at me?” Her voice filled the Forest, from edge to edge. “Melemizargo? Are you here, now?” She instantly said, “No. That is ridiculous. But who...”

[Greater Treat Wounds].

If Jane had a heart, it would have pounded out of her chest. She funneled healing into herself, in that hole in the ground, surrounded by roots and dirt. Her bubble of dim goo became a splash of bright red. Orange light ignited in her center, spreading out to the rest of her, flashing yellow as dark blue light caught here and there, healing, restoring what had been lost.

“Oh. The flame survived?”

Jane called to the darkness, and the darkness responded.

Far away, her voice reached her team and the Elites of Killtree. “Commence attack.”

Jane burst out of the ground, a flame reignited. The Forest was a mess of blackened trees and new growth. Reachers surrounded their Queen, reaching for Jane, heedless of the flame. Her generals, each a wyrm of immense power, each cast their own magics. Dense [Ward]s expanded through the trees, like bubbles of protection and fire-extinguishing cold, as light carved knives toward Jane, and the very ground reached up to smash her to bits. A hundred beams of red light rushed toward Jane’s rising, oozy form.

[Shadoward].

A spell she hadn’t used since killing Porter, now scattered a dozen paths of shadow in every direction. Jane rode the path toward the red, eyebeam wyrm, dodging the beams and the knives and the smashing rocks. She dove into the wyrm’s open maw, healing herself, burning fast and quick, racing toward the monster’s heart. She would have been crushed if she was a human, but she was not. She was fire incarnate, and that was enough. She found her target. She wrapped around the glowing red rad at the center of the eyebeam wyrm, and pulled it into her shadow. She vacated the wyrm with a side hop through darkness.

The eyebeam wyrm unwrapped from its tree and fell to the forest floor, good and dead.

The Queen screamed, “My General! How could you!”

Jane dropped the glowing red rad into the Forest, then went back to the battle.

Meteors began to drop from the sky. The Queen slashed the dark paths of shadow with her horn, killing the spell, but Jane had already plunged into the open wounds of her next target; the [Lightshape] wyrm. Jane ripped through the [Lightshape] wyrm, and when the darkness inside the wyrm turned to light, Jane rode the light. She found the wyrm’s rad and ripped it out. The wyrm slumped to the ground.

Jane went back for the Queen.

The Queen was already right beside her. She slashed with her horn, severing Jane before she could dodge. Jane [Blink]ed up at the Queen’s eye. With all her might, she yanked at the dark and the light inside that eye.

The Queen smacked her away, a gentle action that splattered Jane against a tree. The Queen laughed, and the Forest laughed with her. “You cannot control me, tiny ambassador!”

Jane burbled against the tree, dim for a second, but as dark blue light flashed inside of her, her fire returned. She grew back to a better size. Jane laughed, and the darkness laughed with her. This was fun.

Jane spoke through the night, “You can’t control me, either, Queen of the Forest.”

“An ancient battle rejoined, with new players!” The queen shouted to the sky. “Let us have at it, then!”

Jane hummed a dark song, ripping shadows into the omnipresent light. She rode that darkness, back to the wyrms who were trying to sneak up on her.

Pluck. Pluck. Two dead wyrms!

The Queen flickered through the Forest to appear directly beside Jane. “Not very sporting of you.”

She slashed with her nine meter long horn, severing a burning tree in half, almost catching Jane.

Jane flickered away through darkness, saying, “I’m tiny. Give me a break.”

Meteors crashed from the sky, one after the other, catching the Forest on fire, turning night into apocalyptic day. Jane helped the fire along. Moon reachers and shroomlings died. The Queen chased Jane, as Jane flared fire at her. The fire barely scorched her pristine white body, but she was trying to avoid the larger patches of flame. This was an increasingly more difficult problem; almost everything was on fire. The Queen’s fifty meter tall body flickered around the trees, in and out of the light. She tried to stomp Jane to death and to make sure she got her this time, but she couldn’t seem to land a blow. There was more than enough fire all around for Jane to [Fire Body] anywhere she wanted, now that the cavalry had kicked into high gear.

Still, the sky rained meteors. Trees burst from the inside out; turned to bombs and shrapnel by the heat. Birds fled, or died. Shroomspawn, covered feet to cap in flame, raced to get away, but only served to spread the fire.

Reinforcements arrived for Jane in the form of tiny birds. They cast green and blue spells around the Queen, exploding the air with frying lightning and slashing force.

The Queen roared, “What is this—”

Jane flickered directly into her open mouth, flowing down her distorted, strangely non-tentacled maw, flaring fire just as hard as she healed herself. She was down to a third of her mana. If she didn’t end this now, it wasn’t going to end well.

The Queen flickered left, leaving Jane to hang in the middle of the air. The Queen slashed—

Jane sunk into fire, flowing away to another part of the battlefield.

“Argh!” The Queen yelled in frustration, “Melemizargo! Why must you humiliate me so! You’re forcing me to fight an ooze! I am due the courtesy of my station, Melemizargo. Not—” She moved her head left, deftly avoiding a falling meteor. “Not whatever this is!”

Jane’s not-heart beat hard. There was a lot to unpack in the Queen’s words, but she was having a lot of fun right now, and the Queen needed to die. Jane flickered through the fire, rushing toward the Queen.

The Queen turned, her dark eyes full of anger.

For some reason, Jane stopped in her tracks, fully exposed beside a fallen, burning tree, and a meteor crater. She needed to move. She needed to attack, or hide. She could not just stand there, bubbling orange and yellow in the light of the fire all around.

The Queen stared down at Jane. “What is this about?”

Jane felt her mind release a little. She still couldn’t move, but she could think. She could vibrate the darkness, but the darkness was a slippery thing. It did not respond like Jane wanted. Her voice was small, as she asked, “Do you enjoy eating people? Sending your progeny out into the world to eat children?”

The Queen paused. “Of course I do. They are meat, and I am Queen.”

“Melemizargo would like you to stop.”

“… Stop? What? No. No.” The Queen said, “It is my right as the Crowned Queen of the Forest to do as I wish with those around me. The Dark God has never seen fit to interfere before. Why now?” She immediately said, “Don’t bother answering. I want him to answer me directly.” She yelled out into the sky. “Melemizargo! I know you are there. You are always listening for your name.”

Jane watched the dark sky, high above the fires of the Forest.

Nothing happened.

“That old bastard.” The Queen said, “Whatever. I will continue to do as I wish, and whatever this is—” She turned her huge eyes and massive horn toward Jane. “I do not wish to participate in this farce for one more second.”

The Queen’s horn pointed directly at Jane as it began to fill with an inner radiance.

Jane almost panicked. She couldn’t move. She thought to blip away, but for some reason, and in a way that was both terrifying, and made perfect sense, she didn’t want to leave the Queen’s presence. As the Queen’s horn turned from radiant, to incandescent, Jane wondered if—

Light, as though from a thousand suns, unleashed.

[Pure Reflection Ward].

Incandescence turned on its owner. Power strong enough to light a world blasted away from Jane like she was a disco ball, slashing through kilometers of trees, cutting up the clouds and the sky, slicing through falling meteors, dazzling through the Queen’s skull.

The light instantly ended. The Queen rocked to the side, her fifty meter tall body swaying as rivers of glowing red blood poured across the land, extinguishing fires and blooming grasses and trees wherever it touched.

The Queen’s coat flashed from white, to black. A crown of horns appeared around her swaying head, each of the horns almost as large as her central spike. Her face drooped with tentacles. Her legs locked. She stood tall, as blood poured.

The night returned in a sudden rush. Light failed.

Jane rushed upward, riding the returning darkness, plunging deep into a hole in the Queen’s chest. Jane healed herself as she burned deep into the Crowned Queen. Finding the heart was easy enough; it vibrated the entire body with its thumping, pumping motions. Jane plunged into that organ, burrowing and burning, killing the Queen from the inside out. Blood poured in, threatening to put out Jane’s light and fire, but Jane sunk that blood into her shadows; it was pretty damn dark inside a body, after all.

Jane ate the heart out of the Queen of the Forest. It took a minute, and she burned a lot of the tough, stringy meat, but what were oozes good for but to eat everything in sight?

Somewhere in the middle of all that, there was a notification. The Queen was dead and Jane had killed her. Jane had also gained a lot of levels. She would look at all of that later in more detail, but for now, she healed herself with [Greater Treat Wounds], restoring her glow and her mass, as she extricated herself from her enemy.

Jane burst out of the side of the Queen; a glowing orange tendril of goo reaching into the night. She followed up with herself, finding herself hanging from the side of the Queen. Without the Queen’s life powering her [Aura of Freedom], Jane easily held on to the burning black fur and scorching skin all around her.

She plopped thirty meters down to the forest floor. A lot of everything was still on fire, but the meteors had stopped. Jane stood alone under the still standing corpse of the Queen. Jane flopped forward, toward the Queen’s front. Her head had dropped to the ground. Her horns, all ten of them, dug into the ground, while her tentacled face lay splayed across the Forest floor.

Her horns still glittered with an inner radiance, though Jane’s reflective attack had burned holes in several of them, and cut two in half. The main horn looked mostly intact, but it too, had been damaged. Half of it was buried in the forest floor, but a massive crack wound halfway down the center of the horn.

Jane held her fire close as she picked up a rock with a pseudopod and tapped the main horn.

A faint ring held in the air. Jane tapped the horn again. She tried to match the vibration of the ring with her own oozy vibrations. Nothing happened.

A voice called out from twenty meters away and up a burnt tree, “Yo!”

Jane had seen Redwood the second she showed up in her black leathers and her black mask. Considering everything that had just happened, Jane was on high alert for treason right now, and though she might be low on mana, she had enough to keep [Greater Shadowalk] running; this was one of the many reasons Jane had Favored that spell.

But still, it was nice that Redwood took the time and effort to appear harmless and quirky.

Jane used [Prestidigitation] to speak, “Good show with the meteors. I was expecting a bit more backup. You didn’t really stick to the plan.”

Redwood leapt down from her spot on the tree, landing gracefully on the ground. With a gentle nudge, Jane pulled down the fires around the Queen, preserving the body from further damage.

Redwood said, “Thank you kindly for taking down the fire, Jane.” She took off her mask, saying, “Now... I don’t mean ‘ta be a spoilsport, but what was all that talkin’? The Queens never talked before, and certainly never about That Guy.”

Jane said, “The Queen also didn’t have a rad in its heart, unlike all her progeny. So if they never talked before, then it was through their own volition.” She added, “If indeed, you ever truly killed one before.”

Redwood paused. She said, “We always suspected that their rads were their horns. When they get this big, that is.”

Jane said, “I don’t believe that for a second. But I noticed that you arrived without my team.”

Redwood sighed. She looked to the air.

Blips of purple and teal rippled the air a few meters from Jane. Marric, Bett, and Scallion.

Scallion said, “Holy shit you really did kill—”

“How much did you eat, Jane.” Bett stared at the corpse like it was the juiciest steak in the world. “I can feel the dragon essence in there. Like it’s calling to me.”

“Not a lot.” Jane said, “Most of it burned up. I’ll be shitting my guts out next month.”

Marric just sighed with a small smile. He was obviously, deeply relieved.

Redwood said, “This was a highly unusual kill. Aside from all the rest of what just happened, we scouted a twenty meter tall Ancient Unicorn, but that is no twenty meter Ancient Unicorn.” She added, “I would love for all of us to leave here tonight, not thinking that something evil is going on.” She turned to Marric, “You’re a Mind Mage. Tell everyone if I’m lying, please?”

Marric frowned. But he schooled his face as a gentle teal light threaded through his dark hair. He said, “Go ahead.”

Redwood spoke with authority, saying, “I have killed nine Ancient Unicorns before. One a year for the last decade.” She added, “I missed a year.” She continued, “They have never spoken before. I have no idea what the flip all that was about.”

Marric said, “All true. She’s trying to be truthful, too.”

Redwood continued, “I would dearly like for you four to continue helping us with unicorns. To come back next year, if you could. All of these horns are yours for the taking. This entire kill is yours. We’re fine taking nothing for our trouble. We only do this to help our people.” She quickly added, “We cleaned up all the straggling monsters while you were fighting her, so… You got some time here to gather what you want from the body, but not a lot of time. Dragons do live in this Forest, you know.”

Jane looked up at the dead Queen. Blood dripped out from its tentacled mouth, growing small trees and flowers up through the face of the monster. The Forest nearby was cooled and calmed at Jane’s discretion, but fire still raged in the distance, all around.

Marric said, “Let’s grab the horns and go.”

Bett said, “Holy Hell. We can’t just leave it here! Those bones. That meat. The blood.” She added, “This is a million gold, staring us in the face.”

Redwood said, “It’s only a million gold if you can sell it.” She spoke quickly to the group, and to Jane, seeming like she was trying to wrap something up quick. “You’re all nobles now. Talk to the King or his Steward. They’ll get you started. We might even see each other again around the castle. From there, you can build a stone house and dress the part and the people will treat you the way you deserve to be treated. The people will know that you killed an Ancient Unicorn, too, because we’re telling them all about it. Maybe not all of the details, but enough.” She stressed, “We’re packing up and getting the fuck out of here. My suggestion is that you do the same. Fast. Now.”

The Forest was a jumble of noises, mostly of roaring fire and cracking trees, but as Jane listened, she heard a far off roar. Something bigger was out there, and it was coming here.

Jane said, “The horns, and then we’re gone. Who can cut them?”

Redwood said, “Cut through the skull. Don’t cut the horns themselves.” She lifted her head. She said, “I gotta go.” She dropped into shadows; gone.

Bett said, “I can cut ‘em.”

Scallion said, “I can, too. You two stay on lookout.”

Bett, as a water slime and twice her normal size, cut through the skull with precision water blades. Scallion used beams of force. Soon, they had the main horn and five more cut from the skull. Jane scurried up the Queen’s body, to stand on her back, to keep an eye out for incoming threats. Marric did the same but he stayed on the ground.

Soon, the full horned crown of the Queen had been cut off. The brain laid right there.

Bett called up to Jane, “You already ate the heart. Maybe Ancient Unicorn is an actual different species?”

“It’s not.” Jane called back, “Didn’t you get Participation? I only got 69 percent.”

Bett continued to cut horns loose, saying, “Nope. I killed her parade. I couldn’t risk getting any Participation on such a high dragon essence monster. I’d gain some. Too much, I think.” She added, “You need to worry about that now, too.”

Jane said, “I guess I do.”

Monsters in the Forest roared, louder than the fires, closer than before.

From her perch atop the Queen, Jane spotted a flying, serpentine figure in the sky, kilometers away. It was not a wyrm; it wasn’t chasing anything. But it was coming this way. It had to be a dragon.

Jane dropped to the ground, transforming into a human and conjuring clothes, saying, “Time to go! Dragon spotted in the north. Big golden thing, too.”

Bett kept cutting on her current horn, muttering, “Fuck fuck fuck.”

“I’m not fighting a dragon and gaining essence.” Jane put her hand on the largest horn. “We need to GO.”

Bett dropped away from the final horn, transforming back to a person. She conjured clothes as she put her hands on her nearest horns.

Scallion touched two of the smaller horns; they were still both three meters long, and half a meter thick. He said, “See you back at base.”

Marric grabbed his own two horns, saying, “See you.” He blipped away in a teal flash.

Bett and Scallion touched their four horns, and blipped away in purple light.

Jane grabbed the nine meter long, main horn. A crack ran through it, but it was still one of the largest, prettiest things Jane had ever seen. She held it tight, and blipped away.

She blipped three times more, landing beside their mountain base, next to her teammates and their own haul of horns.

Bett and Scallion shouted gratitude to the sky as they held each other tight, jumping up and down for joy. Marric laughed loud and happy. Jane just sat down on her horn, and sighed. The moons cast a gentle light across the mountainside and the fields of flowers down below.

Jane said, “We should move base.”

Scallion smiled, joking, “I think I love you two fuckers, too, but we might never see each other again, and we’re certainly not spending the night here.”

“Yeah, sorry.” Bett said, “We are done in the Sovereign Cities. Killtree can kiss my ass.”

Scallion grabbed Bett’s butt, holding tight, saying, “It’s such a beautiful ass, too.”

Bett laughed at the sky and pulled Scallion in for a deep kiss. She broke away to say, “Oh my god.” She looked to the base, then said, “We could spend maybe five more— No. We can’t stay here.” She turned to Jane and Marric, saying, “I’m not the overly paranoid type, but that was a fucking nightmare. I don’t know what the fuck you even did out there to make that happen, Jane. But if you ever get down to the Archipelago, I want to buy you a beer. We’re going to be—” She winced. “Fuck.” She asked Scallion, “Where are we going? Did we decide, yet?”

Scallion said, “We still haven’t decided.”

Jane said, “Drop me a message. Jane Flatt, of Spur. My dad’s got a home there. You might get some trouble getting him a message, but you might be able to leave one with Liquid, the Quartermaster for Spur’s Army.”

Bett turned to Scallion. “You owe me a grand rad.”

Scallion said, “I owe you a lot more than that,” as he pulled Bett back into a steamy hug.

Jane averted her eyes, looking to Marric, who was looking at her. Jane lost her train of thought.

Marric smiled, saying, “My post is in Vindin.”

Jane found her words. She said, “Uh. My post is in Spur. Maybe we’ll see each other around?”

“I’d like that.”

Bett said into Scallion’s ear, “Let’s clear out.”

Scallion pulled away from Bett long enough to say, “I got mana potions. Who needs one? I know it seems like I’m rushing, but that’s because I am. We should leave this place and never come back.” He turned to Jane, saying, “I’ll leave a message in Spur when we figure out where we’re going.”

Jane stood up from her horn, saying, “I could use a potion.”

“Me too,” Bett said.

Scallion went to the wall next to the door to the base and [Stoneshape]d a box out from the carved wall. He opened the box, revealing blue potions. He tossed one to Jane, and one to Bett. They both easily caught the blue bottles. He offered to Marric, but the orcol shook his head.

Marric held up his hand, saying, “Let’s just pretend I’m drinking one. To glory!”

Scallion smiled as he held up a bottle for himself, saying, “To a successful hunt!”

Bett held her own potion, saying, “To killing unicorns!”

Jane said, “To killing monsters, and a safe journey home.”

The three of them downed the bottles, while Marric went though the motions, smiling the whole time. Jane felt her mana begin to tick upward from near empty to good enough. She chuckled.

Scallion asked, “Anyone got anything inside the base? I’m taking it down.”

“Oh yeah.” Jane quickly said, “Just a few things. Almost everything of value is already somewhere else.”

Bett said, “Me too.”

“And me.” Marric said, leading the way inside.

It didn’t take too long for everyone to collect the various little things that they had accumulated over the past two weeks, that they hadn’t already stashed elsewhere. Jane just picked up her clothes and the small horn from her first unicorn kill. She tucked them all into a conjured bag. She was second to last out of the base. Marric was already on the mountainside, waiting beside Scallion. He carried an even smaller bag than Jane. Bett came out last, carrying a rather large bag.

Scallion gestured, and the mountain rumbled. The base folded into itself, turning into a natural-enough crack in the mountainside. It only took Scallion five seconds to erase everything that he had added to the place since they came to the Sovereign Cities. Jane had lived there for two weeks in a room she had felt safe in, with people she had liked, going out on adventures to kill monsters that needed killing. And now it was gone, like it never happened.

Scallion and Bett gave one more goodbye, then left together, both of them taking two three-meter long unicorn horns with them.

Marric nodded to Jane, saying, “See you later, Jane.”

Jane felt a tug as she said, “Bye, Marric.”

Marric grabbed his own horns, and blipped away.

Jane stood there for a moment. Then she took one final look down the mountain, across the land, at the dark horizon far away. She had a lot of opinions about this place.

Killtree was a shithole. The people were awful. The monsters were terrifying. But it was still a good experience. Jane had made a lot of memories here. She had uncovered something weird, too. Something that either had vast implications, or none at all. She would have to talk to people in Spur about what had happened here. Anhelia, the wrought information broker at the Mage’s Guild, she might know something.

Maybe there was a vast conspiracy here in the Sovereign Cities, and Jane had barely scratched the surface.

Whatever the case, Jane reached down and touched the nine meter unicorn horn. She blipped to a nearby destination on a different slope, taking the horn with her. After making sure the horn wouldn’t roll down the slope, she [Stoneshape]d out a hidden box, from her own hidden place in the mountains. She opened the box, revealing the rings her father had made her. She smiled at them, then took them out of the box and put them back on her fingers. She checked herself. Badge. Check. Rings. Check. Horns and clothes and other junk. Check. Her Status? Hmm.

She had gained a lot of points today so she threw a fair number of them into Focus. She had run rather low on mana in the fight with the Queen. As those points settled into place, Jane felt a calm balance take hold. She had evened out her mental stats. It was a good feeling, exactly how her father said it would be.

Jane Flatt

Human, age: 22

Level 71, Class: None

Exp: 8,413,987,598,468,659/49,845,401,187,926,400

Class: -/-

Points: 11

HP

1802/3000

3000 per day

MP

1567/4200

4200 per day

Strength

30

+20

50

Vitality

30

+20

50

Willpower

50

+20

70

Focus

50

+20

70

Favored Spell waiting!

Favored Ability waiting!

Favored Ability waiting!

Favored Ability waiting!

There were so many more points to get, though. She could easily do what was suggested in her father’s Oceanside Entrance packet; just make junk spells to unlock the accomplishments for higher tiers.

Whatever the case, it was time for a break! Maybe she’d even visit her father in Oceanside. That’d be fun. Maybe.

Jane could make it be fun.

Jane stood straight and sighed into the night air. She was already missing Marric, Bett, and Scallion. They hadn’t even gotten a goodbye drink. A mana potion didn’t count. Not that there was much to be had in Killtree, anyway. They still could have gone to the guildhouse for a round.

Ah. But Scallion was right. Time to move on, and quickly; before whatever nonsense happened in that fight with the Queen caught up to them.

Jane put her hand on the Queen’s horn, and blipped away.

Blip, blip, blip, all the way home, to Spur.